123389-3-9-2015-morning-coffee-the-uuuuunnnngh-edition
Content ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- I prefer the clock alignment when we're on DST. It's light out when I drive home and that makes me happy. While switching is a pain there's a silver lining to both: Spring we lose an hour but it stays lighter longer. Fall it gets dark too early but I get an extra hour of sleep :lol: Of course I'm on the leading edge of the timezone. My sister used lived in Ft. Wayne which is on the trailing edge and it would stay light past 9pm. That's it, we need 8 timezones. *snickers* I'm really happy I've got SoTR crossed off my list. It's a siege and I think the designers hit that particularly well. Too well for my tastes. Maybe when we clean up our runs a bit it'll be less exhausting. Definitely derped on that last push, I've never seen it. Now I know :lol: As for Malgrave Trail *cracks knuckles* bring it. :ph34r: Mmmmmmm, coffee time. So. My love/hate for building continues. Got so consumed by work on the ship that I totally tuned out what was going on on Saturday. I'm utterly gutted that I missed both the Drunken Boulder Chili cookoff and the gathering at the Shadowcaster :(. When 6am rolled around Sunday morning I figured I ought to go to bed :blink: Since I rebuilt the midsection the bridge was looking a bit less spiffy so it got it's makeover. I pretty much considered the hull a done deal until I had a shower epiphany Sunday morning: I need more guns. Sooooo.... the top's going to get an observation/fire control deck. Already have the hardpoints in place to add whatever weaponry will look good (thinking Shiphand Cannons). I started thinking about how the fighters were going to be stowed in their launch bay and I roughed out the sections for crew quarters, launch control and medical. Just need to populate them. I did some detail work in the engine room. I think with some workstations and maybe another computer rack I'll be able to call it done. I got enough PvP in to grab the 1800 claws. Even with the loss of 60 mainstat it was a 110 point bump to my AP. After runing it out I'm sitting at 3112 AP :blink:. The mobs I hit doing dailies used to melt. Now they vaporize. *cracks knuckles* I may need another round with Omnicore-1. Even though PvP is something of sideshow for me I just can't stand feeling like wet tissue paper so I runed out my PvP blues. Much better now. Since I went all hard mode housing on Saturday I made it a point to do content on Sunday. Soooo much pixel death and crossed off another item on the Attunement checklist :wub: Tonight... bi-weekly errand time, so I'll be on late. Need to make some plat so I'll going to try to get CB and NW runs in (need to remember to buy and use the xp flask). | |} ---- An AURIN?!? I was hoping there was going to be another mordesh, or even one of those rare female granok I am told exist. It's going to be kinda weird seeing you not at the same height as I am. | |} ---- Welcome back Typrop! So good to see you enjoying yourself, again. :) If you need help, just give the Blazing Saddles a holler. Or better yet, come join us. :D | |} ---- *hugs* I'M SORRRRRRY!!!!!! I actually made a Mordesh before, but it just didnt fit me. I wanted to make a granok(I REALLY like them), but they can't be the classes I wanted to play this time around. Perhaps When I make an alt I'l be one of them though :) Thank you! I'll keep in mind, right now I'm just kinda drifting around and helping people as I can. | |} ---- Granok female warrior. There's pure win all over that! | |} ---- Sorry to see you go, Typrop. Although our population is decent right now, bleeding good players is never a positive thing so I'm sad to see another loss. Although I would have probably transferred as well by now if there was any kind of faction swap function (I refuse to give up my house and crate full of decor to a reroll). On the upside, another few flips and this thread will pretty much be a Blazing Saddles breakfast nook. ;) I heard that Chestnut is streaming the contest entrants, which is really cool of her. At this point I'm about done with my place, will be playing less until the next drop, and am just waiting to see the cool Exile places I can't reach from Illium. | |} ---- Eh........I don't think I could make a 5th warrior XD | |} ---- I forgive you. Mordesh are kind of odd critters and they just don't "feel" right for a lot of people. The class problem is irritating on both sides. So I guess you are running an esper, or a spellslinger then? | |} ---- I had the same issue, with my house and crate items, when I had to swap to Exile from Dommie a few months back when mega-servers hit. (Long story, really short version: Guild didn't do different factions on same server, all us Dommies went Exile because the guild was bigger on Exile side.) Yes Chestnut is doing a video of the houses. But I am not sure if it will only include the winners or all of them. Us Blazing Saddles love this community. I do wish more people would partake in the Morning Coffee thread. Come join us and tell us what you all have been up to. :) | |} ---- Stalker. I prefer the sneaky stealth animation on Aurin over Mordesh. However I'd make a granok female stalker in a heartbeat. , Like if seriously if I could have a garuntee I wouldn't get banned I'd just outright mod my client to play as a granok stalker.However knowing my luck I'd get kicked out day one lol. My alt will most likely be a Mordesh slinger after I get Trang to 50. Well I'm not leaving the game. I know it's not the same as me playing Dominion as my main, but I'm always willing to help if you need it and I'm capable. If anything the bright side is now you have a rabid aurin willing looking to pick a fight with people, so may help with some conflict stuff I know people were looking for RP wise which I'm working with a couple of people on doing sometime in the future. :) | |} ---- ---- I hear ya, just the loss of community-minded members always sucks. I was hoping Red Bastion would work out but I know you've got real life concerns that are much more important than Wildstar. Plus it's hard to make a new guild work on Domside with our number of level 50 players. At first I figured she was just doing the winners, but the wording of her post suggests all entrants. If she does do everyone... I do not envy her. :P Either way it's great to see BDS putting this much effort into making the game fun. | |} ---- Catgirl ninja is a popular class, we have a few of them in Saddles right now. Like this one Who brought me rum honey, granola for lunch. | |} ---- It's getting to be that way. Kindly glad some other people like you are around, though. I really miss the Dominion being here. Though, in the end, I suppose that's why Trajan Spenser is still on Dominion; if I could reroll him, I might have faction-swapped him already. Or I might be Dominion today, as I'd planned before Tex asked me to take over. It's hard to know. I mean, I can always hope the faction wall gets a bit more permeable. I know not everyone likes Illium and its layout, but I really miss not doing my weekly shopping at Fresh Kills. | |} ---- ---- ---- Domside is just a strange situation. I love a lot about my faction, but I can't help feeling our greatest hindrance to active population is association of Dominion = Evil, or alternately, Dominion = Oppression. Although the first part is arguable, I think the second one is pretty close to truth. I still have a hard time accepting that my faction is basically called We Rule You. :P /tangent initiated The academy I just built is supposed to be a neutral third-party organization that steps away from the narrative of Dom = Rule. Although funded by Dominion members, it is non-violent in the faction dispute (we still fight monsters and non-political criminals), and is premised on the Sonoda (or Nomad) Accord, which basically states we must do everything possible to ensure the survival of knowledge and artifacts, particularly those of Eldan origin. The set-up here is to let RPers step away from the binary and focus more on Nexus, Eldan culture, the importance of knowledge (especially in a sci-fi setting), and the benefits of cooperation. Now, I was hoping to use this guild and my plot as a recruitment tool for cross-faction gameplay and lite RP, to try to get Exile and Dominion alts together. And it might work out some day. But I'm starting a new job editing this week, so don't think I'll have the time or energy to run a guild solo; especially one for new players and lower level characters, which would require more effort than usual. :( Eh. Some day, maybe. Until then I'm glad to have WSRP Domside, and the Morning Coffee thread is a good slice of community feeling. Without these two I would have probably left the game out of sheer loneliness. :P | |} ---- I suppose I can share some of my feelings on the matter. As I've mentioned a few times, I would have mained a Dommie a long time ago were it not for the guild, and I'd love to say why. The Dominion doesn't get enough love, and that's a shame. For starters, the Dominion is only "evil" according to a very recent paradigm in human history. It really wasn't that long ago (if it's ended), to simply spread your hegemony because might makes right. For the Exiles, this is an old story in narrative history. Frankly, it's become a bit of a tired one for me. The idea of a rebellious faction fighting oppression from a theocratic and bureaucratic empire while they carry on the true Enlightened faith gets to feel a little sickening after a while. You just want to say, "I GET IT! I'VE SEEN STAR WARS, TOO! KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY!" I guess that's why I play the characters (and guild) that I do; it gets a bit further from that when your leader is a scary voodoo shaman who isn't even trusted by the Exile high command. And, let's face it, if you're a theocratic and bureaucratic empire, it helps if you actually knew (and now had unshakable proof) your gods existed, specifically chose you for greatness, and you can see that they were in fact great creators. It lends them a bit more weight. Once you get into the Dominion, you get the idea that there's a lot more to it than you'd think. On the surface, they're a very feudal society, and they play to a lot of stereotypes we have about that feudal society. However, the Dominion's best and brightest seem a lot more noble than their Exile counterparts. I like Deadeye Brightland as much as the next guy, but Toric is the best, and the arc of story concerning he and his brother felt so much more interesting and heartfelt than even Deadeye and his wife. I wasn't sure why that was at first; they use a lot of the same narrative. However, the first thing that jumped out at me was this feeling of majesty and nobility, this longing for honor and decency that the Exiles just don't have on their side. I think following that is why I suddenly got why I liked the Dominion story so much more; it has a lot more layers than the Exiles. I've made this observation before, that though the Exiles have a lot of variety within the group and you can get away with playing a lot more, the Exile structure itself is paper mache. You need your own structure. The Dominion, however, is a very densely layered organization, because you need to know how to interact with it, how to act without it, how to react to it, how to have your character's own opinions on it. Trajan Spenser has a very complex characterization because he has a very complex relationship with his government. The way it affected his life, the way it affects his current options, the way he has to live, it's all built on this giant and substantial framework of an organization. I find that the Dominion's structure is so strong, their story so much more full, that the Exiles are entirely a reaction to it, like antagonists in their own story. In a way, the Exiles are, as well, defined almost completely by their relationship with the Dominion and its policies. Every Exile race has a specific gripe with them that defines them; the Dominion races all stand on their own and serve the Dominion, not oppose the Exiles. In the end, I think I also really liked the aesthetic more. The Exiles have a western feel that I essentially grew up watching movies of. It feels a bit like a pandering at the best of times to me, and at worst it's just boring. It doesn't help that they also have a very heaped-together and jury-rigged feel. That's some people's cup of tea, but it's not mine. If I miss anything more than any other on the Dominion side, it's that feeling of soaring architecture and outright beauty that the Exiles don't, and probably never will, have. Illium feels like a city whose citizens take great pride in it, with architecture and sculpture that show a far more cultural side to the faction. Dominion areas have that feel of a righteous church. When they hit the Strain areas, it simply feels so much different. The Exiles feel like they're there because they have to be, fighting a greater evil. The Dominion, you get the immediate impression, have a mandate to be there. It feels somewhat more noble riding into battle against a merciless horde of biological nightmare as a sci-fi knight than a sci-fi cowboy. And this is all, of course, personal opinion. I can see people leaning the other way, finding these not to be the case, or even finding some of these to be reasons they wouldn't like the faction. I simply think Toric and that setting of righteousness would be a far better image for the Dominion than the Chua on the box. In the end, though, I'm not sure what more can be done about it. We Americans are trained, from little on up, to see an empire like the Dominion as the "bad guys". We get that before we're told about orcs, darkness, or bats, we're taught everywhere from history classes to almost the entire body of our literature and film that a giant cultural hegemony is evil. However, it's really that which defines the Dominion and makes them the object around which the rest of the story rotates. So I'm not sure that should be sacrificed. All in all, though, if I hadn't been asked to run the Saddles, I'd probably be running a guild on the Dominion today. I just think the story is that much better. | |} ---- ---- FIRST GUY! Oh my God, would I not want to have a beer with the girl who wets herself halfway through the vid. At least Malvolio looks like he knows a little something about naval policy. | |} ---- Um can I pass on them both and go drink with Voxine? I guess that it never really boils down to pro-dominion or pro-exile for me. I'm just highly pro-mechari and pro-mordesh. | |} ---- I dont know if Typrop be up for it, but ive wantesdto play dominion for some time. Not to long ago i wanted to start a guild dom aide to be a lot like blazing saddles. A fun community for everyone to play and have fun. But i dont have the time to do it myself, but would be willing to help. When i came back from a break, i went back.to dom but didnt know anyone. Ive made friends in saddles, but Im willing to go back to Dom. | |} ---- First guy looks like my Father. :D | |} ---- It would be a sad day for Blazing Saddles to lose Cyco to the Dommies. But also a proud day, for he will be getting a 'sister' ('brother'?) guild of Blazing Saddles up and running on that side. I also know that whoever does a guild like Blazing Saddles on Dommie side will succeed in getting the population growing again on that side. I'm sure there are other guilds over there that help new/returning players, but none do it like we do. :P | |} ---- ---- ---- ---- Why not? If the Dominion wins, then it will have been socially just. Victors get to write their own legacies. | |} ---- Getting to write your own history doesn't change the actual facts. That's the difference between history and propaganda. (By definition, the kind of class system the Dominion operates on is inherently socially unjust.) | |} ---- I'm never much for the mustache twirling. I have touch on this in the past, but playing and RPing a mechari is just odd. Aside from the rules that are hardwired into your consciousness you have a very real goal. Once upon a time the creators of your race said "Take these cassians and make the greatest empire the universe has ever known." Not like some creation story, you can just go ask the older mechari, they were there. So here you are on nexus to show off to the creators of your race how well you have followed their instructions, and ask what it is that they want now....But the eldan are gone. You walked into the house of your gods and found them no where to be found. Then you find the prime As a mechari what I want is for her to just give the command. Give me back my purpose, let me join all the other mechari and extinguish the vary stars themselves until the universe kneels before the eldan's perfect being......but she isn't perfect, and she isn't interested in ruling the vast empire we have delivered. So I have nothing, and the older mechari's insisting of staying the path seems silly. Sometimes I fight the exiles, not because I hate them, but because defending dominion citizens let's me feel as if I have purpose again. | |} ---- I have the same exact problem. I've tried to RP a few times, more dialoguing than actual plot development, and I'm just like... meh. Not only do I not want to speak like Data, I feel like there's no room for independence or personal desires. Consequently I wrote a back-story that brought my mechari into existence as a reprogrammed security droid. After the Exile scientist who did this to her died, she was found by his former mistress, a Mordesh mercenary named Proxima Dust, who (in an unusual moment of empathy) sent the mechari back to the Dominion. But not before inserting a kind of 'personality chip', based on the deceased scientist, which gave the mechari a new prime directive: To safeguard knowledge and promote creation. So it ran with that motivation, took the name Proxima Dust from its saviour— having no other name to use— and became a reclusive architect. Now the problem is that this mechari still has no room for fluid personality. I gave her freedom, plus a goal that doesn't include oppressing others, but she's still just a toaster with a brain-crystal, and I don't even know what that brain-crystal is capable of. Thus I had to invent the personality chip. But I bet that kind of thing wouldn't fly in traditional RP groups so I don't try to RP it out. *shrugs* I'm just going to simplify and make a Cassian next time. :P | |} ---- How was that odd? That sounded like great character development to me. :p (Incidentally, I wasn't saying if you RP Dominion, you should just "mustache twirl", though I wouldn't be against someone's character if that was what they were for. xD Just that I think there's a heck of a lot of great story to tell within the reality of the Dominion empire without having to try and stretch the boundaries of interpretation to make the Dominion a morally good force.) | |} ---- If she safeguards knowledge and promotes creation, doesn't that give her the capability of learning how to have a personality and how to ingratiate herself into her new world? Besides the chip you gave her is a 'personality chip', so she already has that. And having those qualities, she doesn't have to talk like Data. You could expand on that a little, I guess, for RPing. | |} ---- I'd have to politely decline unfortunatly. I don't mind helping in the sense that if you need a tank for a run or a body for an event, etc. However I'm no longer in a position to undertake and try an administrative role again. For me personally switching to Exile was rather easy because most, if not everyone I knew that I could play with consistently and fit my mindset are gone or switched to Exile. I love Dominion, but what attachments I did have to it aren't really present anymore. As for roleplay, Mechari was rather fun for me to do as I tend to take on "parental" roles and Mechari fit that pretty well to me acting as a gaurdian and a guide.What hidden motives beneath that, well that remains to be seen(and those that found out are six feet under). In a way it was fun to be "genuinely two faced" in the sense that one day I will teach an art class to curious young Chua, while the next day I'll be using one of those Chua as a flail fihting off a horde of rabid Aurin to protect the Dominion. Overall I jsut played Typrop somewhat close to Commander Data, but with an inherently tempered meanstreak if that makes sense. As I've seen it based on how Mechari NPCs act and the lore behind them, they're not immune to emotion, but have a the ability to restrict it at will. I can cite the emmisary attacked by the Falkrin in Deradune who indicates that the emotional estriction of her outrage are no longer there. Regardless I'll miss my fuzzy Chua babies, but they're all grown up now and out of their crates. Now they just have to deal with an Aurin sharply tickling their spines. | |} ---- This as well. The Mechari aren't robots in the usual sense. They are sentient, inorganic beings. Their exanite cores don't just emulate a brain; they are brains. | |} ---- Really the only thing you have to do as a mechari is act in a way that benefits the dominion. I am not a toaster, I don't ever say program unless it is as a joke. I have a directive, how I go about fulfilling that is my business. I care. I defend, I like having organics around. Generally my affection is of the parental type. I'm not interested in empire building anymore but I still want to see the cassians do well. I might have a body made of metal, but I am a creature made from the prime elements. Each of those elements has intrinsic personality, and so do mechari. | |} ---- ---- This makes me want to rail against any mixture of the factions. Aurin and Chua don't need to learn to breed together. They're doing that well enough on their own. | |} ---- So what I'm hearing is.... We need a Mordesh and Chua couple *puts that in to do list* | |} ---- Well the personality chip was really just a set of intuitions, kind of like command lines drawn from the Exile scientist's personality. But I know what you mean. In the end it's probably just an issue because I'm new to RP. :P | |} ---- More like Mordesh and Draken. Seeger will volunteer. | |} ---- I'm new to RP myself. I just tend to look at things more logical than I probably should while RPing. I will learn, slowly, but I'm getting there. :rolleyes: | |} ---- As mentioned on the Saddle's forum (yes we actually have one :lol:) I might have an option available for our Dom alts. Will discuss it more in guild chat tonight assuming I don't get side-tracked. | |} ---- ----